Monday, August 27, 2018

The government has released its first discussion paper on fixing tenancy laws, proposing an end to no-cause evictions, increasing notice periods when evicting for cause, a ban on rent-bidding, limiting rent increases to once a year, and a process for negotiating simple issues like pets or minor alterations. Good. Our current tenancy laws deprive renters of both stability and dignity, and with National's property bubble consigning an entire generation to renting for life, its an issue that desperately needs to be fixed. While the government could do more, this is at least a start, which tackles some of the core issues.

Naturally, landleeches are squealing, and crying that these changes protect "bad tenants". As usual, they're lying: there's nothing here that restricts the ability of landlords to remove tenants who damage properties or fail to pay rent. What these proposals do do is restrict the ability of landlords to bleed their tenants dry while denying them security and dignity. If landleeches oppose that, well, fuck them: the quicker such people are out of the industry, the better. And that will at least allow their hoarded houses to be bought by people who view them as homes, rather than financial investments...